The recent deluge in Rawalpindi did not just flood streets — it exposed the chronic failures of governance, flawed urban planning, and the state’s indifference to the poor. Thousands who migrate to cities in search of survival and dignity are left at the mercy of clogged drains, crumbling infrastructure, and unresponsive institutions. For decades, unchecked construction, illegal encroachments, and bureaucratic apathy have turned our cities into death traps. The time has come to establish a dedicated Urban Climate Response Force — equipped with helicopters, boats, and rapid rescue capabilities — to act before tragedy strikes. The government must act now — not after the next disaster.
When Rawalpindi submerged under monsoon rains this week, it wasn’t just a weather event—it was a collapse of state planning. Lahore's underpasses became aquariums, and Karachi’s roads once again turned into rivers. Each flood is framed as a natural disaster. But in reality, Pakistan’s urban flooding is a governance failure. And for the urban poor—who occupy the margins of both geography and policy—this failure is catastrophic.
We are witnessing not only the fury of nature, but the accumulated cost of decades of unregulated sprawl, crippled municipal systems, and bureaucratic apathy. If this crisis persists, urban flooding won’t just destroy infrastructure—it will erode the social contract itself.
I. Where the System Failed: Anatomy of an Avoidable Disaster
Chaotic Urban Expansion
In cities like Rawalpindi, Karachi, and Lahore, unchecked real estate development has consumed stormwater drains and floodplains. Critical nullahs—such as Leh in Rawalpindi and Gujjar in Karachi—have been encroached upon with impunity, often under political patronage. Town planning, if it exists, is either outdated or undermined. For example, Rawalpindi’s master plan was last meaningfully revised over a decade ago and has since been sidelined by land use violations.
Institutional Fragmentation and Incoherence
Urban governance is split across multiple agencies—WASA, cantonment boards, development authorities, PDMAs—none of which are institutionally aligned or mutually accountable. The result is siloed planning, slow response, and overlapping jurisdictional chaos. No single agency is responsible for pre-disaster risk zoning, and few have the capacity for rapid mitigation.
Marginalization of the Urban Poor
The most vulnerable live in informal settlements on hazard-prone land—near nullahs, canals, railway tracks—without formal drainage, tenure, or state protection. These migrants, displaced by rural climate stress, are doubly hit: first by floodwaters, then by evictions under the guise of anti-encroachment.
II. What Must Be Done: A Resilience Doctrine for Pakistan
This is not the time for ad hoc measures or performative visits. What Pakistan needs is a comprehensive national urban resilience policy grounded in planning law, climate adaptation, and institutional reform.
1. Revise and Enforce Urban Masterplans
- Integrate hydrological modeling, rainfall intensity data, and floodplain mapping into all urban masterplans.
- Enforce zoning with real-time GIS monitoring and legal sanctions against violations.
- Ban construction on natural drains and preserve urban wetlands and green corridors.
2. Drainage Infrastructure Overhaul
- Conduct hydraulic audits of nullahs, stormwater drains, and culverts in every major city.
- Build retention ponds, pumping stations, and permeable roads to absorb runoff.
- Digitize and monitor drainage networks using IoT sensors and AI-based flow forecasting.
- Establish a ring-fenced urban flood resilience fund in each provincial budget, separate from post-disaster aid.
3. Establish a National Urban Emergency Response Force (NUERF)
- A dedicated civil-military hybrid force, pre-positioned in high-risk metro regions.
- Equipped with helicopters, rescue boats, mobile bridges, drones, and temporary shelters.
- Conducts quarterly simulation drills, infrastructure audits, and risk communication campaigns.
- Coordinates with NDMA, local governments, and hospitals under a unified command structure.
4. Legal and Institutional Reforms
- Create a National Urban Resilience Authority (NURA) with statutory powers and fiscal autonomy.
- Empower NURA to penalize non-compliance, override municipal bottlenecks, and track performance via public dashboards.
- Mandate urban climate risk assessments for all new housing, industrial, and commercial zones.
- Implement climate stress testing for all public infrastructure projects.
5. Citizen Participation and Legal Safeguards
- Enforce the Right to Information (RTI) for disaster budgets, urban plan audits, and drainage records.
- Embed urban risk education in school curricula and launch public awareness campaigns on evacuation and flood safety.
- Create ward-level disaster committees involving local leaders, schools, and community health workers.
III. Accountability is the Missing Floodgate
- Every monsoon, ministers tour inundated areas with TV crews in tow, offer compensation, and vanish until the next flood. But no one is ever held responsible for negligent design, illegal construction, or maintenance lapses. This must end.
- The Auditor General should annually audit all municipal flood expenditures and publish forensic reports.
- The Supreme Court and High Courts should create urban climate benches to treat preventable flooding as a violation of Article 9—the constitutional right to life and dignity.
- Whistleblowers within government bodies must be protected and incentivized.
IV. The Climate Crisis Is Urban—and It Is Now
Glaciers in Gilgit-Baltistan are melting at unprecedented rates. These waters will reach our cities. What happens in the mountains no longer stays in the mountains.
Pakistan contributes less than 1% to global emissions, yet bears the brunt of climate impacts. While we rightly demand global climate justice, our domestic planning failure is equally culpable.
This is not charity—it is justice. But justice begins at home—with accountable institutions, planned cities, and resilient communities.
Planning is Protection
Cities are not just physical spaces; they are social contracts. When that contract breaks—when drains overflow, homes collapse, and help never arrives—citizens lose faith not just in systems, but in the state itself.
Floods are not a mystery. They are the result of what we build, where we build, and whether we maintain what we build. And so the response must go beyond short-term relief to long-term transformation.
Let this not be another editorial written after the storm. Let this be the beginning of a National Urban Resilience Doctrine, one that centers data, justice, planning, and accountability.
Because the next flood is not a possibility—it is a certainty.
Appeal: It is time the judiciary acknowledges that preventable urban flooding is not merely a planning failure — it is a violation of fundamental rights. The Supreme Court and High Courts are urged to establish Urban Climate Benches to treat chronic urban flooding as a breach of Article 9 of the Constitution of Pakistan, which guarantees the right to life and human dignity. When unregulated development, institutional negligence, and climate inaction repeatedly put lives at risk, it becomes a matter of justice. The courts must intervene—not after tragedy—but to prevent it.
